Fire At Dubai High-Rise Is Blamed On Electrical Issue In Spotlight : The Two-WayNo deaths were caused by the New Year's Eve fire. The short-circuit occurred in a bright light that's used to illuminate the hotel's exterior, police say.

Flames that engulfed Dubai's Address Downtown hotel on New Year's Eve were caused by an electrical short, forensics experts said Wednesday.

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A fire that engulfed a 63-story hotel in Dubai on New Year's Eve was started by an electrical short-circuit, police forensic experts say. The blaze turned The Address Downtown Dubai hotel, in the United Arab Emirates, into a spectacle that rivaled the city's fireworks display.

"There's concern over the cladding panels used on the outside of these shiny buildings. A lot of them, experts say, are flammable. The 2012 fire that destroyed Tamweel Tower was in part caused by these panels because they act as fuel for the flames. The National, a government-owned newspaper, estimates upward of 70 percent of skyscrapers in Dubai are covered in these flammable panels."

Standards for the highest structures were changed in 2013, Leila said, but that does little to reduce the risk posed by existing buildings.